Mobile penetration in UK expected to touch 98m subscriptions by 2016: research

By 2016, 90.8% of all handsets sold in the UK would be smartphones, driving the demand for mobile data, says a new report Pyramid Research.

Entitled ‘UK: Content and Connectivity Provide Growth Opportunities for UK Telcos’, the report quotes Pyramid Research’s associate analyst Olena Kaplan as saying that the mobile penetration in the UK is expected to reach 152.8%, which is around 98m subscriptions, by 2016.

Pyramid Research expects smartphone adoption to increase by 40% by 2016, up from 50% in 2011.

Kaplan added, "The growing demand for simultaneous data access by multiple devices, which will be met by 4G technology following the 4G license auction in 2012, will result in mobile data service revenue reaching 7.7 billion pounds Sterling ($11.7 billion) by 2016."